Twenty-three high tech startups, intellectual property law experts, and venture capital firms will converge this Wednesday and Thursday at the 13th annual SmartStart UNYTECH Venture Forum at the Desmond Hotel on Wolf Road.

SmartStart is advertised as an opportunity for startup companies to network and connect within the community of innovators and venture capital. It includes seminars and discussions on intellectual property law, funding for tech startups, and discussion of emerging trends in startup funding.

Participating startups will present their innovations to attendees, which include venture capital and angel funding firms that could provide them with capital to fund their operations.

Participating startups range from AndroBioSys, a Buffalo-based company focused on improving imaging and treatment of prostate cancer, to the Glenville-based Jamboxx, which produces an electronic harmonica-like instrument that connects to a computer, permitting the would-be musician to play a variety of synthesized musical instruments.

Startups are vetted before they are chosen to participate in the forum, said forum chairman Richard Honen.

Recent changes to patent and securities laws seen in the JOBS and America Invents Acts will be the topic of several discussions hosted by lawyers who have experience working with startups.

The JOBS Act works to loosen securities laws that will allow startup companies greater ease in publicly soliciting funding from investors. The America Invents Act changes the patent system from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file system, and also lowers patent filing fees.

The conference has been held annually since 2001, and has seen a good deal of success stories since then. Versatrans, a school bus routing software suite, presented at a prior forum, and later was sold to the Dallas-based software company Tyler Technologies. The company continues to operate locally in Latham.

The online advertising service AdInterax, now owned by Yahoo, was also a previous presenter. It moved to Sunnyvale, Calif., from Troy after the acquisition.

Upstate New York does have a rather vibrant and diverse startup community, Honen said. That vibrancy could play a role in the economic development of the state. But Honen identifies the need for New York to pay more attention to startups.

Honen notes that New York officials pay more attention to large projects and less to smaller startups.

Though startups do have the opportunity to receive state funding, it is significantly less than what Honen thinks is warranted. "It's great that the State is looking to support startups, but it could be doing more."